Haemagglutination-inhibiting antibody response to and efficacy of inactivated Hong Kong influenza vaccine.
In a field study involving some 3000 soldiers in Japan, various doses from 0.2 ml to 1.0 ml of formol-killed monovalent Hong Kong influenza vaccine were administered. Before vaccination 92% of the subjects had haemagglutination-inhibiting antibody titres of <1:16; one month after vaccination, only from 1% to 57% (depending on the dose and the soldiers' camp involved) had so low an antibody level. In one vaccinated camp an epidemic of Hong Kong influenza broke out in January-March 1969. In a unit in which 80% of the men had been vaccinated, there was an infection rate of 16% among the vaccinated, of 26% among the unvaccinated living in the same barracks and of 63% among the unvaccinated living in separate barracks; these figures suggest that vaccination of at least 80% of a population group will afford some protection to the unvaccinated remainder of the group against an epidemic of influenza provided the vaccinated and the unvaccinated are living in close association.
D000917:Antibody Formation; D006385:Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D007564:Japan; D008887:Military Medicine
D007252:Influenza Vaccines